The Shukaku's Son
by SpunkyPaperAngel
Summary: Based on a beautiful, mythical song about the moon wanting to have a son, Karura makes a deal with the Shukaku: the demon will make it so that she marries the Fourth Kazekage, but in exchange he will have her son Gaara. Short one-shot.


**The Shukaku's Son**

**About this story:** Written at 2:00AM, short story inspired by the song "Hijo de la Luna" (Son of the Moon) by Mecano! Please read the footnote where I summarized what the song talks about! Or listen to the song while you read the translation on youtube :))) That song has been fascinating me for 10 years already; it's so pretty with it's amazing music and vocals! Anyways this story is not canon; there's no Temari and Kankuro. I am merely using the concept of Shukaku, Gaara, and Karura. Thanks for reading, and please review if you get a chance since I'm sure stories like this don't get a lot of traffic to begin with :p Thanks!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto series or characters.

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><p><strong><span>-The Wish-<span>**

All she had ever wanted was him, but who was she fooling? He was already looking for a mate to settle with, and his eyes had always overlooked her.

At last, one night, the young woman went out into the frosty desert. "Please, Shukaku, help me…!" she called out to the wind. She was sobbing heavily, her face wet with never ending tears. She was hurting. God never listened to her pleas; he never brought her any closer to her heart's desire no matter how much she prayed and how good she behaved. The Shukaku, however, was the demon of 'self-love'. If it wanted something, it would get it, and it understood that humans longed to fulfill their greatest desires as well. It granted wishes, the girl had heard people say, but of course, there was a price to pay.

Being the enamored creature she was, in order to finally be with her dark-haired infatuation she was willing to give up anything.

It snuck up behind her— he did. The Shukaku, in his human form. He was an attractive, savage looking man, tall and with intense yellow eyes. He had long, sandy brown hair not unlike the color of the desert and deep, almost fluorescent markings on his smooth skin. He smirked, his long tongue flicking across his sharp canines, and he spoke in a deep, whispery voice, "Why is a young maiden like you crying in my lands?"

A shiver ran down her back, her instincts warning her of the danger, but her illogical side got the best of her. "I think you can help me," she explained shakily, choking on her sobs every now and then as she proceeded to tell him the story of a stupid dreamer yearning to be in the arms of the most perfect man only to never be noticed. He had already picked a bride, she finished, and if he married her she wouldn't know what to do with herself.

She fell on her knees and wailed in sorrow once again, clutching tightly at her chest as if to keep her broken heart from shattering even further; the Shukaku watched with an intrigued gaze. "You're in a lot of pain over a simple man," he sighed, squatting down to pat the girl's back comfortingly. "You're beautiful. Any male with eyes would love to make you his woman."

"He doesn't want me but I only want him," she stammered out, looking into his captivating golden eyes. "I've always wanted him, and if I lose him I won't be able to live."

The Shukaku and the girl discussed back and forth, he telling her to forget about her loved one and she insisting that not. If he could help her she would give him anything, and as the dawn was approaching he knew that the girl had won. She really had a strong yearning for her man, but thus the price she had to pay would be high.

"The first child you give birth to shall be mine."

"But you're a demon," she said in disbelief, smiling a little in spite of herself. "Why would you want a human kid?"

"Why would you want that specific male to be your lover so badly when there's plenty of other males out there?" he retorted wittingly. "Each other's reasons aren't to be each other's business, don't you think?"

He was a demonic spirit and she was a human girl. Fighting his logic was useless.

"I agree then."

"To give me the child?" he asked in surprise. Her will was strong, but part of him had been sure she would be alarmed at the cost of her wish.

"Yes, but just let me have _him_," she beseeched just to make sure he wouldn't trick her.

"Of course, of course," he sneered. "You have a deal, my darling. In twenty-four hours your man will call off his current engagement, and then when he sees you he'll _really_ lay eyes on you and pick you. And in less than a year, you'll give birth to my son."

She agreed happily and he roared with laughter as his body dissolved into a whirl of sand. "_Deal_," the wind whispered.

**-The Price-**

She moaned and cooed and writhed in her husband's arms. She loved him, and he loved her. Being with him was sweeter than she ever imagined it to be, and although she was growing uneasy about the first child she would have, the present was perfect and she wouldn't have it otherwise.

Like the demon had promised, her man had called off his previews engagement within twenty-four hours, when he found his fiancée in the arms of another man, and in a week he had proposed to her instead. How the Shukaku had done it, she didn't want to know. All she cared about was making love with the man of her dreams once more.

A month since her wedding had passed by when her husband showed up home late at night, loud and drunken. He kissed her roughly, pressed her underneath him on the bed, and bit her hard on the neck with his fangs…? Golden eyes and a long, slithering tongue on his normally plain but handsome features answered all her questions. The Shukaku was home to conceive his daughter or son.

It was time to pay back. Frightened as she was, the young woman allowed her demon-possessed husband to take her body without fighting it too much. The faster it was over with, the faster the man she loved would come back, and once the child was born, she could freely lead her happy life.

Yet another month later, her lover was ecstatic at the news of their first son being on his way. It'd be a boy for sure, he bragged proudly, and the baby would be born beautiful like his mother and grow up to be a well-to-do man like his father. He pampered his wife devotedly for the following eight months, adoring her for being the carrier of his child, and unsurprisingly when the baby boy was born to look nothing like him he reacted violently.

The newborn child was pale-skinned, just like his mother, but with bright red hair and icy blue eyes, surrounded by dark shadows, that neither him nor his wife had. What the hell was that thing? And who was its father? Because he sure wasn't stupid, and he knew it wasn't his!

"What have you done?" he snarled angrily as he approached the new mother. "_Who_ is that boy's father?"

In her weak, after-labor state she told him her story, about the deal with Shukaku in exchange of his heart, but enraged and thinking it to be an absurd excuse he dismissed her tale as a lie.

"I don't care who the other man was," he whispered irately, "as much as the fact that _you_ deceived me, unfaithful woman, and for that you die."

She saw with tearful eyes how her perfect husband grabbed a kunai, and felt for a minute how with it he stabbed at her heart. She screamed, and the baby cried. Was this her punishment for giving up her son in exchange of the man she loved? Had the Shukaku tricked her? Was it just not her destiny to be with the man that in spite of everything she had managed to call her husband? Was she supposed to be thankful for the past ten months being the happiest time of her life, or sad that it had to end so bloody and bad? She had so many questions that she wanted to think about, but her heart was too broken and very soon stopped.

She was dead by the time the man grabbed the newborn baby and rushed out into the desert. What a miserable baby, that boy was. His mother was a whore, his father was unknown and gone, and he was unwilling to kill him fast. He put the red-haired child down in a nest of sand and abandoned him unceremoniously. He would not take in the dirty, bastard brat.

The child's real father showed up when minutes later the tiny creature cried. It was his beautiful son; what had been of his mom? Well it didn't matter. He had a son made out of flesh and bones. _His_ little Gaara, to wreak chaos and terror where he could not. Shukaku was known as the demon of self-love, as the demon who always gave himself what he wanted, and once again his own desire had been fulfilled.

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><p><em>This short story was inspired by the Spanish song "Hijo de la Luna" by Mecano. Really magical and tragic. I REALLY recommend you hear it once in your life (Go on youtube and search 'mecano hijo de la luna singable english' for an accurate, poetic and 'sing-able' translation). I seriously think that if you appreciate music you will like it more or less even though it's in Spanish.<em>

_If you don't want to hear that masterpiece, however, I'll tell you here what it's about: _

_It's a song about a Gypsy woman asking the moon to let her marry the man she loves, and the moon agrees but in exchange she wants her firstborn son. When she does have her son, the baby has pale skin and silver eyes (Gypsies are bronze-skinned, dark-haired fyi), so her husband assumes she cheated on him and kills her, then abandons the baby on a mountain top. When the moon is full, the baby is happy, but when he cries, the moon wanes to cradle him._


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